Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.

Monday, March 31, 2008

PETA - the Video Clip They Don't Want You to See

From what I can tell, the folks at PETA are, for the most part, small powerless people who want to feel important. In order to feel important, they begin to see themselves as the ultimate arbiters of morality in the animal world.

From there, it is only a small step to believing you are a God; the only proper entity to decide who -- and what -- gets to live and die. The law does not matter, social norms do not mater, and rules and regulations do not matter. Those things are for mere mortals. You are a God.

If you think this sounds a bit like a cult, you are not the first to notice.

If you think this type of thinking is not too far removed from that embraced by abortion-clinic bombers, 9-11 jet liner jockies, and animal-liberation lunatics, you are not the first to notice.

But, of course, there is an alternative. Author Nathan Winograd thinks he see something else going on with PETA: what he calls, Munchausen by PETA. Read the whole thing.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I,m not sure you'd use the same terminology as I , But I have an absolute disdain of PETA and their faux animal protection/love of all living things organization. One perfect example of their organization of Jugheads is their total disregard of human life and their advocating violence and even murder of humans (animals in our own right) to push their agenda.

They disguised their support of it, although not well, by supporting the "Animal Liberation Front" with $70,000., so they could continue violent attacks on people.

I submit the following article . Also, the audio link on "Bruce Friedrich" at the bottom of the article says it all.

I knew I wouldn't be able to watch the PETA video, so I skipped it a few days ago. But last night in the news here in Ohio they found a mass shallow grave and remains behind a Morgan County Animal Shelter. So...I watched the PETA video today. Thanks for posting this. I am sure our local media will bury the story of what is happening here.

We're "like this" on the AR agenda. But do you not find the No Kill folks a little bit cultish, too? I'm all for finding homes for pets, many as possible, but an end to death is not possible for anyone, kittens included.

Everybody dies; we can't change it. That should be the starting point of every discussion of animal welfare. What we can change is how we live and how they live and what we do to support our shared quality of life. The end comes to all, just the same.

Considering animals' welfare (and I inlcude wild animals and hunting in this discussion) requires that we admit animals and people are pretty similar in most terms, that we like pleasure and shun pain; that most of us like to eat (often eating each other) and breed and groom each other, and---again--that we're all going to DIE.

Responsibility for animal and human welfare is shared to the extent that we all share the same basic resources of life. Death is not a shame and killing is not a crime, provided they occur in contexts supporting the larger system that also supports us. This is much like Leopold's definition of right and wrong:

"A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people."

Yes, I would agree that there is a kind of "Joan-of-Arc-was-your-Mother and Don-Quixote-was-your-father" quality to the No Kill folks.

Having said that, I think this quality is alway there, and has to be there, for a paradigm to change.

To the extent the No Kill folks stay in the rescue business (where Winograd seems to have stayed as far as I can tell), they are doing quite a lot of good. This it not say that Mr. Winograd and I are likely to see eye-to-eye on all things, even if we agree on some. For example, when Mr. Winograd talks about feral cats, he argues that feral cat kills of birds are probably overstated, and if not overstated in number are overstated in importance. Bird feeder birds are NOT at risk of slipping into decline.

I would give him that.

My Winograd goes on to say that feral cats should be give the same standing as wild animals like fox and raccoon which also predate on song birds to some extent.

Again, I would give him that.

Where Mr. Winograd and I *might* differ, however is that I would argue that if cats are to be truly accorded the status of "wild" animals, then they can be hunted and trapped, same as fox, raccoon and coyote. I suspect Mr. Winograd would be uncomfortable with that line of thought, but like you I am not in the romance-of-wildlife business, but in the habitat and population dynamics business. You have it perfect when you quote Aldo Leopold. The man is a God.